Power upgrade and performance suspension for a GTI TCR

The first time you sit behind the wheel of a VW Golf 7 GTI TCR, one thing soon becomes clear: this Golf is built for speed! Although its 290 hp might put it behind its big brother in the Golf R and its classy Volkswagen Group cousin Audi S3 (each of which have 300-310 hp) on paper, the TCR Golf – named after the Touring Car Racing championship – boasts superb driving dynamics on the track, putting these comparatively comfortable all-wheel drive models firmly in their place. Despite “only” having two-wheel drive, it achieves outstanding traction around corners and races from 0-100km/h in just 5.6 seconds. Impressive – but that still leaves room for improvement! The tuning specialists at Maxi-Tuner.com and Dronia Sportwagen have teamed up on a project to beef up a GTI TCR further still.
After a software optimization from Maxi-Tuner.com, the 2.0l four-cylinder turbo engine (EA888 DNUC) in the GTI TCR surpasses its ex-works 290 hp /380 Nm and now boasts 335 hp / 460 Nm on the test station – outstripping
the Golf R and Audi S3 by some margin. This setup cuts the GTI TCR’s 0-100 km/h test station time to just 5.1 seconds. To give an even more practical figure, the massively boosted torque means the TCR can complete an intermediate sprint from 70-130 km/h in just 4.0 seconds.
In addition to these software tweaks, Maxi-Tuner.com fitted the GTI TCR with a set of its own MaxSpeed light alloy rims. With a high-gloss black version on the left-hand wheels and mouse gray on the right, the rims measure in at 8.5×19″ ET45 and have been fitted with 235/35R19 Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 tires.
To ensure this wheel/tire combination adheres perfectly to the road – an absolute must when this dynamic specimen is pushed to the limit – Dronia Sportwagen also installed an Eibach coilover suspension and meticulously fine-tuned the dampers’ compression and rebound stage settings. Our thanks go out to Hankook and Eibach for their support on this project.